Spin Art
2002
Devil's Workshop
About This Album
The companion album to the reflective, ambitious Black Letter Days, Devil's Workshop is short, simple, and lively, a collection of rollicking, quirky road songs that recall some of the more oblique moments on Teenager of the Year and the more rock-oriented tracks on Pistolero and Dog in the Sand. And, as on Black Letter Days, Frank Black uses travel and the West as muses, particularly on the bright, bittersweet jangle pop of "Out of State"; the bouncy yet edgy "San Antonio, TX"; and "Are You Headed My Way?," a singalong set to a boogie-woogie beat. While Devil's Workshop's playful, off-kilter rock is arguably more musically straightforward than most of Black Letter Days, Black and the Catholics still craft a surprisingly full sound from their back-to-basics, two-track approach. In particular, the album features some of the most sizzling guitar work to appear on one of Black's albums since his days in the Pixies; even some of the lesser songs here, such as "The Scene" and "Whiskey in Your Shoes," boast impressively slashing rhythm guitars and incendiary leads. Fortunately, though, many of the songs here are among the best he's written in his later solo career, whether it's the vaguely spooky, Teenager-esque pop of "His Kingly Cave"; the cryptic but oddly brooding rock of "Bartholomew" and "Heloise"; or the playful, romantic "Modern Age" (no, not the Strokes song, although it would be interesting to hear Black cover it).
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 8)

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